A very rare Philip IV 8 reales cob of Cartagena, Colombia, with a partial date

Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, an UNESCO World Heritage City

For me, this is a city cloaked in mystery and romanticism and immersed in history. Its mere name, Cartagena de Indias invokes images of galleons plying the waters of the Caribbean, loaded with gold, silver and precious objects bound for Spain and Europe, and other galleons arriving with cargoes needed by Spain's thriving colonies. And, of course there are images of pirates or privateers, both "free booters" who worked independently and those who were employed by England, France and the United Provinces to harass and capture Spanish shipping in times of war or peace.

Here is a cob of Cartagena, one of a few in my collection.

This is a coin that I purchased several years ago on eBay, from a Spanish seller as I recall. The coin was not listed as being from Cartagena, but after some research I determined that it was.

This is a very chunky cob, thick, at approximately 4mm and fairly narrow in diameter, at about 33mm at the widest point. The flan also has a bend that was apparently present at the time of striking, since it affected the level of detail on both sides, especially the cross side. The grade is very high, I'd say EF with some luster still present.

The silver coinage of Cartagena and Bogota during the reign of Philip IV was quite erratic due primarily the scarcity of silver compared to the relatively more abundant gold. All of the 8 reales are rare to very rare.

The strike, as I mentioned is irregular around the edge, but the centers are quite bold and lovely. At issue is what is the date for this coin? As many of you know the presence of dates on these crude, hammer struck coins is literally a hit and miss proposition. More often than not dates are not present, either due to weak strike, flan flaws/imperfections or "off the flan", where the placement of the die with the date extends over the edge of the flan.

For this coin the date is on the flan, but it is in a part where the bend occurs, making most of it extremely weak. On the cross side the date starts just above 9 o'clock and extends to between 11 and 12 o'clock. The 1 is quite bold, followed by a much weaker 6. From that point we're in the region of guessing the last two numbers. I think they are 2 and 9, the latter being almost a ghost that it could be something else, or nothing at all. So, I think the date of this coin is 1629, assayer E. That assayer is flat but visible on the shield side, under what seems to be a very weak R and N.

KM 3.4

27.3 grams



So, please post your coins of Cartagena, Bogota, Colombia, colonial Spain and anything else! I am very interested in seeing your comments, as always.

Thanks

 

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Not as nice as yours, but here's an 1821 8 reales from Cundinamarca, Gran Colombia. The script MDQ countermark means "Moneda de Quito" indicating it circulated in Ecuador.


A couple other Colombia coins:
Colombia (Nueva Granada), 1849, 2 Reales


Colombia Love Token, 1886, 5 Centavo


Colombia, leper colony, 1 and 2 centavo, 1921

 

Nice coins! I really like that ornate script countermark.

 

Here are a couple more Colombian coins.

The first is a 2 escudos, 1630s, Bogota.

This coin exhibits the typical irregular strike of a cob, but it is sufficient to determine that this coin is from Bogota, with the weak but readable vertical NRA to the left of the shield. On the cross side the bottoms of the 1 and 6 are visible, but the remaining two numbers are off the flan completely. However, I feel it is safe to attribute this coin to the 1630s due to the assayer A, who worked at the mint during that decade.

I have this coin in a cardboard holder, so there is a little refection that I tried to minimize. It was purchased from my coin shop "around the corner" back the early 90s.

KM 4.1

67 grams





The next coin is an 8 reales of Bogota, 1846/5, Assayer R. The early republican coins suffer from debasement, flawed flans and often times poor strikes. As this coin goes, it is above average, but still exhibits some softness in the strike, some flan irregularities, and debasement at 22.72 grams.

KM 98